Art Teachers Guide

Welcome to the Art-Resource blog, website… There are many ways you can use the information on this site. Send the students to it and let them browse, or set specific topics for them.

Note, I have not set the site up with an one curriculum or course type in mind, as the aim is to cover a range of art areas, however I feel sure you will find topics and information, which can be adapted to suit your particular curriculum and course requirements.

Here are a few suggestions for setting topics for your students, perhaps think of them as starting points to their learning about the wonderful world of Visual Arts.

Contemporary artist interviews – Brainstorm with the students the sorts of things they would like to know about practicing artists, what questions might they ask and so on. Then show them this site and the links to artist interviews (categories, artist interviews), they can then find out things about each artist and perhaps search for similarities. Then discuss their findings. Consider how looking at the interviews could be a great lead in to an excursion to an art gallery or to encourage them or their parents to go to galleries on weekends and holidays.

Chat to the artists – Some of the artists will readily reply to the comments people add in at the end of the interviews, so they can write a response to the artist’s interview. Note the comments are moderated, so it gets approved by the admin team first to stop spammers and inappropriate information being added.

Create artist links – Most of the artists interviewed have their own website, students could create a list of links to the sites of the artists work they find of interest to them, they could extend on that by exploring the artists site and writing about what they like about the artist and why. The possibilities are endless here, students could also evaluate the value of an artist having a site, and which sites work better.

Creative strategies – There are a range of techniques around creative strategy development the students can explore, this can be a fascinating area for students to get into to find ways forward if they are in a creative slump or to explore ways around how the creative brain works. You could do a brainstorm to get some ideas started before they jump in and tackle these topics.

Art Theory – There are a number of aspects of Art Theory some Teachers find challenging, perhaps it’s evaluating an artist or looking at some aspect of Art and Culture… Check out the articles for a suitable starting point, head the students to it and give them some questions to explore the information deeper. It may well lead them to searching the internet more deeply once they have used this as a starting point.

Art Galleries – Exploring art galleries is one thing but finding out more about the smaller contemporary galleries is another. There are a few articles in here on the galleries and thoughts by gallery directors, (it’s my aim to add more over time.) students could utilise this information to find out more about how galleries operate and their differences.

The Archibald – This is a category on the Archibald Prize, an Australian Art Institution. Students can explore behind the scenes and find out more about it and how some artists get involved in it. Read through and see what you find…

Art Quotes - There are lots of these, perhaps this category in here can be a starting point to further discovery, consider creating a wall chart of artists quotes to inspire and or intrigue.

Analysing Art – Another aspect of Art Theory. there are some ideas in here that might be useful for the students to explore. It can lead to a great discussion and a brainstorming session to glean from the students starting points to art analysis.

Explore these ideas and create your own, if you have an idea or three that could be of value to others let me know and I will gladly add them in, just drop me a line, it’s an art resource for us, not just me. If you create a handout sheet for students to use here, please attach it in an email to me and I will put it on the page here for all to use.

“Steve I use these sites regularly, I send the students over and ask them to set questions for a mini test and so we set up a search and find test… It’s a fun way of getting them involved, may sound a bit corny but the discussion it sets up is well worth it! The big test is when I find them going to the sites themselves, or mentioning bits of it in their visual diaries. I feel sure their level of engagement with the subject is much greater now.”

David Parkinson – Art Teacher

Great I.T. Add on to Vis Arts studies…

“Since finding your site I created a worksheet and hand it to the students to work on, they go to the category section, open the Artist Interview section, select an artist, then they merrily sit and pour over the info on that Artist, (contemporary, alive and producing ones, not a bunch of “dead and or meaningless names in a book”) it keeps them busy for hours and gives them a fresh view of Art in action. If they get bored, I suggest they search for another artist to read about and devise another handout set of questions specific to that Artist. Thanks so much, it is really engaging, and great to see new ones pop up from time to time, so varied and very useful!”

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This site is provided as a service to the Visual Arts Community, I put in HEAPS of hours for free, but to assist in the hosting fees can you assist with a donation to the cause? If I get enough I will be able to extend the service to include more. Thanks in advance.